Glenn Greenwald Uses a Holocaust Denier as a Source, Then Defends It
This morning when I looked in on Twitter, I noticed a tweet by author Jeremy Duns highlighting a comment made by Glenn Greenwald in February of this year:
It’s been quite a long courting leading to that. Here, for instance: https://t.co/caFrbcRnsu
— Jeremy Duns (@jeremyduns) August 6, 2014
Duns was actually pointing out Greenwald’s cozy relationship with another shady individual, but when I clicked on the tweet to see what Greenwald had written I was astonished to see it was a link to the website of infamous British Holocaust denier David Irving:
@MoAnsar Yep http://t.co/L1kOfQAr2v
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) February 19, 2014
I’ve encountered this vile website many times over the years; Irving often copies entire news articles and posts them here, possibly to get people to link to his site without knowing what kind of site it is.
So it might be possible to call this an honest mistake… except for what happened next. Because when someone then challenged Greenwald about linking to a Holocaust denial site, he didn’t admit an error. Instead, he attacked and mocked the person pointing it out, then claimed he couldn’t find the article anywhere else — implying that he knew all along he was linking to a highly questionable source.
@AlexRyvchin I didn’t realize The Independent is a publication of David Irving. You should alert the public to this.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 6, 2014
@AlexRyvchin The link and reference is to an Independent article, which is accurate and authentic and a perfectly legitimate source.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 6, 2014
@AlexRyvchin Feel free to find the link to the Independent site. I looked and couldn’t, so I searched & found the article where I could.
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) August 6, 2014
Well. When I saw that last tweet, challenging the object of Greenwald’s derision to find a link at The Independent, I quickly Googled the first sentence of the article, and look what popped up right away, at the Irish Independent: the very same article. Court Endorses Use of Torture to Obtain Terror Evidence - Independent.ie.
Greenwald says he couldn’t find the article except at a Holocaust denial site: https://t.co/ZpeNt87be9 Here it is: http://t.co/DHKcUNBrcb
— Charles Johnson (@Green_Footballs) August 6, 2014
What was Greenwald’s response when this was pointed out to him? He just dropped it. No apology, no acknowledgment that he used a disreputable source, nothing.
So apparently, Greenwald quickly searched to find something that backed up his narrative, and didn’t really care what kind of source he found. His own tweets seem to indicate he knew he was sending people to David Irving’s site, but didn’t consider that important. Duns points out that this is a long-running pattern of the Mighty Greenwald’s:
If you think I’m being harsh on Greenwald, tell me if you think he read his cited sources here: http://t.co/4hy9r2daUu (Spoiler: he didn’t.)
— Jeremy Duns (@jeremyduns) August 6, 2014
And lest we forget, yours truly has also been a target of this sloppy unprofessional sourcing by Greenwald, when he attacked me by linking to a fake graphic at an extreme right wing site run by crazed stalkers.
Just another day in the life of the Ultimate Alpha, ushering in a brave new era of journalism.